The following discussion of the prior art is intended to present the invention in an appropriate technical context and allow its advantages to be properly appreciated. Unless clearly indicated to the contrary, however, reference to any prior art in this specification should not be construed as an express or implied admission that such art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.
There are many advantages to rail conveyor technology for the long distance transportation of bulk materials as is set out in our International patent application PCT/AU2011/000930 published as WO2012/009765A1, the content of which is incorporated herein by way of cross-reference.
In the rail conveyor system as described in our earlier PCT application, the carriages are typically turned around at both the head and tail end of the system on a horizontal rail loop as shown in FIG. 1 of the present application. This has the advantage of being simple and direct, and is suitable for situations where there is adequate room to accommodate the width of the rail loops.
There are however many situations where space is limited at either or both of the head and tail end of the conveyor system and where it is necessary to redirect the carriages from the delivery run to the return run using only a narrow footprint.
Even the turnaround configuration shown in FIG. 4 of PCT/AU2011/000930 has a significant width of approximately 5-6 meters due to the necessity to position the delivery run and the return run side by side and to re-orientate the carriages using a horizontal turnaround wheel. This wide footprint is not suitable in many delivery situations.